She preferred to doubt or to believe as her
passion led her, and she now began deliberately to play with peril.
Her eyes, full of scornful meaning, bade the young chief notice the
soldiers of the escort; by thus presenting to his mind triumphantly an
image of his danger she made him feel that his life depended on a word
from her, and her lips seemed to quiver on the verge of pronouncing
it. Like an American Indian, she watched every muscle of the face of
her enemy, tied, as it were, to the stake, while she brandished her
tomahawk gracefully, enjoying a revenge that was still innocent, and
torturing like a mistress who still loves.
"If I had a son like yours, madame," she said to Madame du Gua, who
was visibly frightened, "I should wear mourning from the day when I
had yielded him to danger; I should know no peace of mind."
No answer was made to this speech. She turned her head repeatedly to
the escort and then suddenly to Madame du Gua, without detecting the
slightest secret signal between the lady and the Gars which might have
confirmed her suspicions on the nature of their intimacy, which she
longed to doubt. The young chief calmly smiled, and bore without
flinching the scrutiny she forced him to undergo; his attitude and the
expression of his face were those of a man indifferent to danger; he
even seemed to say at times: "This is your chance to avenge your
wounded vanity--take it! I have no desire to lessen my contempt for
you.
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